"From Fifth Avenue Up" by Djuna Barnes

View this email on a browser Forward to a friend June 2, 2019   From Fifth Avenue Up   Djuna Barnes

Someday beneath some hard Capricious star— Spreading its light a little Over far, We'll know you for the woman That you are.   For though one took you, hurled you Out of space, With your legs half strangled In your lace, You'd lip the world to madness On your face.   We'd see your body in the grass With cool pale eyes. We'd strain to touch those lang'rous Length of thighs, And hear your short sharp modern Babylonic cries.   It wouldn't go. We'd feel you Coil in fear Leaning across the fertile Fields to leer As you urged some bitter secret Through the ear.   We see your arms grow humid In the heat; We see your damp chemise lie Pulsing in the beat Of the over-hearts left oozing At your feet.   See you sagging down with bulging Hair to sip, The dappled damp from some vague Under lip, Your soft saliva, loosed With orgy, drip.   Once we'd not have called this Woman you— When leaning above your mother's Spleen you drew Your mouth across her breast as Trick musicians do.   Plunging grandly out to fall Upon your face. Naked—female—baby In grimace, With your belly bulging stately Into space.            This poem is in the public domain. Published in Poem-a-Day on June 2, 2019, by the Academy of American Poets. About This Poem   "From Fifth Avenue Up" was published in The Book of Repulsive Women: 8 Rhythms and 5 Drawings (Bruno Chap Books, 1915).   Djuna Barnes was born in Cornwall-on-Hudson, New York, on June 12, 1892. An important figure in the Modernist movement, her works include Nightwood (Faber and Faber, 1937), Ladies Almanack (Edward W. Titus, 1928) and The Book of Repulsive Women (Bruno Chap Books, 1915). Barnes died in New York City on June 18, 1982. Poetry by Barnes   Nightwood (New Directions, 2006) "Summer Night, Riverside" by Sara Teasdale "The Tropics of New York" by Claude McKay "Children in a Field" by Angela Shaw June Guest Editor: Samiya Bashir   Thanks to Samiya Bashir, author of Field Theories (Nightboat Books, 2017), who curated Poem-a-Day for this month's weekdays. Read a Q&A with Bashir about her curatorial approach this month and find out more about our guest editors for the year. Thanks for being a part of the Academy of American Poets community. To learn about other programs, including National Poetry Month, Poem in Your Pocket Day, the annual Poets Forum, and more, visit Poets.org.   You are receiving this e-mail because you elected to subscribe to our mailing list. If you would like to unsubscribe, please click here.   © Academy of American Poets 75 Maiden Lane, Suite 901, New York, NY 10038